Alister Coyne
Product Design Leader — New Zealand
Alister Coyne is a product design leader based in New Zealand with over two decades of experience taking products from early-stage concept to product-market fit and global scale. He specialises in translating emerging AI capability into intuitive, business-driven product experience — most recently as design lead across ASB Bank, Sence (AI-powered conversational intelligence), and Game Over. Earlier roles include Director of Product Design at Auror (retail crime intelligence, used by 15,000+ stores and 3,500+ law enforcement agencies) and AskNicely (customer experience software, where he led design of the NiceAI® brand), and Design Lead at Trade Me Property.
About
I'm an ish. Agile-ish, Lean-ish, Design Thinking-ish, Strategist-ish. You get the idea. I value conversations over process. I understand that each business is a bit different-ish and what works for one client isn't the same for another. I value building relationships with people, simply because I give people my full attention. It's my superpower – active listening!
Most of all, I love creating things that people love.
Case studies
Sence — AI-Powered Conversational Intelligence
As a consultant product design leader, I partnered with the Sence founders from early stage thought to product-market fit, shaping both the strategic vision and user experience. Sence uses generative AI to transform online conversations into brand intelligence. Working directly with the founding team, I led the product design across three distinct solution pillars: community moderation, brand insights, and opinion analysis — translating complex AI capabilities into intuitive, ROI-driven features. Our collaboration helped shape a powerful platform now trusted by organisations including the All Blacks, Sky, and New Zealand Herald, with a product foundation strong enough to support Sence's expansion across New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Auckland.
Auror — Retail Crime Intelligence
As Product Design Director, I led the complete redesign of Auror's platform from the ground up — rebuilding the end-to-end product experience into an intelligence system capable of operating at global scale. The design challenge was substantial: translating complex, multi-stakeholder crime data into intuitive workflows for retail security teams, investigators, and law enforcement. The result is a platform that now processes 20% of all reported crime in New Zealand, connecting over 15,000 stores and 3,500+ law enforcement agencies worldwide around a critical insight — that 10% of offenders are responsible for 60% of crime.
AskNicely — Customer Experience Software
As Product Design Director, I led AskNicely's strategic pivot into AI-assisted customer experience — repositioning the company from a traditional NPS survey tool into a forward-looking AI platform. Central to this was the design and development of NiceAI®, AskNicely's proprietary AI brand, which I shaped from concept through to a fully realised product identity and experience, including conversational survey flows and a brand system around AI that customers could trust.
Game Over — Immersive Entertainment
Game Over is a multi-location entertainment brand spanning Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast, offering go-karting, laser tag, mini putt and arcade experiences. My engagement was a full end-to-end product design challenge: I built their entire point-of-sale infrastructure — from ecommerce to booking systems — and reshaped the customer journey from booking flows through to in-venue leaderboard displays, kiosk UX, racer-selection flows and go-kart lap tracking.
Career history
- 2025 — ASB Bank, Design Lead
- 2024 - 26 — Sence, Product Design
- 2024 - 26 — Game Over, POS, eCommerce & CX
- 2024-25 — Purple Shirt, Contract Design Lead
- 2023-24 — AskNicely, Director of Product Design
- 2022 — 25 Maps, Founder
- 2018-2023 — Auror, Director of Product Design
- 2013-18 — Trade Me Property, Design Lead
Top 5 strengths (Gallup CliftonStrengths)
- Maximiser: Sees talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does, and helps people get excited about their potential. Excellence, not average, is the measure and pursuit.
- Ideation: Creative and fascinated by new ideas and concepts, with a natural ability to turn the familiar into a strange, enlightening angle.
- Significance: Wants contributions to be recognised as substantial and significant — a drive that motivates away from the mediocre and toward the exceptional.
- Self-Assurance: Has faith in own abilities and judgment, with an inward certainty that affirms direction and decisions when taking risks or meeting new challenges.
- Empathy: Senses the emotions of those nearby, intuitively seeing the world through others' eyes and helping people give voice to their own perspective.
Contact
Email: alister@hairycow.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistercoyne/